More than 100 specialists from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, CGIAR, the World Bank, IICA, FAO and CIRAD, among other international agencies, will participate in the high-level dialogue.
CGIAR will join with The Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture (IICA) and the World Bank to bring together more than 100 international authorities and experts in Costa Rica to discuss the role of science, technology and innovation in modernizing and strengthening agrifood systems in Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC), their role in light of current challenges and opportunities, and financing prospects.
The meeting will take place within the framework of the Regional Dialogue on Science, Technology and Innovation in Agrifood Systems of Latin America and the Caribbean, which will be held on May 4 and 5 in a hybrid modality at IICA Headquarters in San Jose.
The purpose of the dialogue will be to put strategic issues related to the strengthening and transformation of innovation systems back on the international agenda, as well as to identify potential areas of joint work based on national and regional priorities in the Americas.
Among the participants will be authorities from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the French Agricultural Research Centre for International Development (CIRAD), the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), CGIAR (a global research partnership for a food-secure future dedicated to transforming food, land, and water systems in a climate crisis), the World Bank and IICA.
The speakers will include Rubén Echeverria, Senior Advisor for Agricultural Development at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation; Juan Lucas Restrepo, Director General of the Bioversity International – International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT) Alliance and CGIAR Global Director of Partnerships and Advocacy; Joaquín Lozano, CGIAR Regional Director for Latin America and the Caribbean; and Diego Arias, World Bank Agriculture and Food program manager for Latin America and the Caribbean.
Photo credit: Alliance of Bioversity International and CIAT